Sunday, October 15, 1995 - Venezula, On way to Isla Margarita

Got up at five again for our trip to Los Roques. The wind was rather strong, so I thought we should wait another day, but Roy wanted to leave, and he's the captain, so we left. Had to motor directly into the wind, which was blowing 15 to 20 knots. There were a lot of waves knocking us around, too. Consequently, we only made about three knots. It's about forty miles from Barlovento to Los Roques, but even though we had left at 6:30, the sun was setting by the time we were two miles from our destination, and it was inky black as we approached the anchorage. No moon. We were in 160 feet of water a quarter-mile from the beach. The wind was blowing like crazy, and waves were sloshing over the deck. I had to crawl out to the bow on my hands and knees to get the anchor ready. We knew there were reefs and coral heads and a sand-spit ahead of us, but we couldn't see them, not even on radar. It was just too hairy to attempt to go any farther in, so even though we were tired and would have loved to anchor for the night, we turned around and headed back out to sea. As soon as we were well clear of the islands, we turned southeast towards Isla Margarita. Our big worry was fuel. We had had to use more diesel than expected to get to Los Roques against the wind. Was there enough left to get us to Margarita? Around 11:30, Roy poured half-a-dozen jerry cans of diesel into the tank. That was a fun job with the boat bouncing all over the place. Quite a bit got spilled. We decided we had better head for the nearest port where we could get diesel, instead of taking the chance of plowing against the wind all the way to Isla Margarita, more than 200 miles away, or to Isla La Tortuga, 90 miles away. There are no towns or provisions on Tortuga. By then, the moon had risen and was shining brightly. Where had it been when we needed it? If it had been shining at Los Roques, we might have been able to reach the anchorage.